Links from Oct. 24 webinar

For all who attended — and who watch today's webinar — thank you for taking the time to do so.

Below are some links you requested. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have other questions.

ACEs science and opioid addiction:
Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs…adverse childhood experiences.

Bad news-good news: Each additional ACE increases opioid relapse rate by 17%; each ACE-informed treatment visit reduces it by 2%

Dr. Sumrok cofounded Integrative Health Centers with Ryan Chapman in September. Here's a media release about the organization.

Physician who has launched local ACEs initiative
Dr. Ariane Marie-Mitchell, a pediatrician at Loma Linda Medical School who started the ACEs Task Force of San Bernardino County (CA). She also developed the WCA (Whole Child Assessment), which integrates ACEs & resilience questions.

Milestones Tracker:
The ACEs Connection Community Milestones Tracker helps track how many steps towards becoming trauma-informed an organization has taken. These milestones were chosen by ACEs Connection based on an extensive literature review of evidence-based self assessments. Here's a link to Northeast Tennessee's Community Milestones Tracker.

How did we choose these milestones?

After examining many trauma-informed assessment tools for several different sectors, we chose 11 milestones that are common to most, if not all, organizations across sectors. Each milestone represents many changes an organization has implemented. A representative of an organization provides the data. This tracker does not evaluate how well an organization is doing at each milestone, but if the organization completes all milestones, it is likely that meaningful change is occurring. For members of the ACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities, we will use data generated by this tracker to further refine it, and to help organizations within a sector identify what’s working and what isn’t.

The Milestones:

1. ACEs science presentations to any staff — Any employee of an organization has attended a workshop or presentation about ACEs science.
2. ACEs science presentations to all staff — All employees have attended a workshop or presentation about ACEs science.
3. Participates in local ACEs initiative — Organization representatives attend ACEs initiative meetings, participate in workgroups or have signed an MOU with the ACEs initiative.
4. Leadership committed to integrating ACEs science — Organization decision-maker(s) publicly state the intention of, approve a committee to lead and provide resources for the entire organization to become trauma-informed.
5. HR integrates trauma-informed practices & policies — Human resources employees, or people responsible for organization’s human resources function, applies an ACEs science lens to all policies and practices, including hiring, termination, leave, supervision, etc.  
6. Staff receive ACE & resilience surveys — This means that each staff member has anonymously completed an ACE survey to determine their own ACE and resilience scores so that the organization can determine its ACEs burden and resilience foundation. It is important for an organization to do this; it provides impetus for the organization to examine its workplace practices through an ACEs science lens and make appropriate changes, to make sure its workforce is practicing self-care, and to create a physical and emotional environment that is safe and supportive for staff . Anyone who takes an ACE survey should be educated about ACEs science, provided a resilience survey or information about resilience factors, and the opportunity to talk with a peer support specialist or social worker. Employees should not provide their scores to the organization they work for.
7. Clients educated about ACEs science — “Client” also refers to patient, student, prisoner, customer….whomever is served by the organization. They have a right to know the most powerful determinant of their...and their children’s...health, safety and productivity.
8. Clients receive ACE & resilience surveys — This means that clients/ students/ customers/ patients/ prisoners have completed an ACE survey and resilience survey (original or expanded) for themselves. It does not mean that they have provided that information to the organization that gave it to them; it may be for their own knowledge. It depends on the organization. It’s appropriate for a physician to know the ACE score of a patient; it’s not necessary for a school to know the ACE score of a student. However, it would be useful for a school to know the ACE burden and resilience strengths of its student body, and gather student ACE and resilience scores anonymously. Anyone who takes an ACE survey should be educated about ACEs science, provided a resilience survey or information about resilience factors, and the opportunity to talk with a peer support specialist or social worker.
9. Implements TI practices for clients — Organization has applied ACEs science lens to all practices for clients, students, patients, prisoners or customers, and changed them to become trauma-informed and resilience-building
10. Evaluates TI policies and practices — On an ongoing basis, organization evaluates changes it has implemented, and makes improvements.  
11. Physical environment is trauma-informed — Organization has examined good examples of the trauma-informed physical environments of other similar organizations, and made changes in their own physical environment.

The Assessment Tools:

General self-assessment tools exist for organizations, as well as self-assessment tools for organizations in specific sectors, including child-abuse prevention agencies, child/youth/adult/family serving organizations, domestic violence services, healthcare agencies, etc.

For a complete list of assessment tools, go to the trauma-informed self-assessment tools section in ACEs Connection’s Resources Center’s post on Trauma-Informed Guides, Presentations & Self-Assessment Tools. We will be adding tools as we hear about them.